Is this genuine, section 4, page 5

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From Doug

14th June 08

There arer many of these "Roman" archer's ring available especially on eBay.

What do you think?

From JC

I would be very suspicious of anything described as a 'Roman' archer's ring.

There is evidence for Roman/Sassanid use of the Mongolian release in the mid

3rd century in the form of one ring and the fletching of arrows found at

Dura-Europos in Syria. That is ALL the evidence to date and thumb-rings are

never generally found on Roman archaeological sites along the northern 1st-5th

century frontiers (where most excavation had been undertaken). See Simon James'

book on the arms and armour from Dura for discussion and reference to other

Roman archery publications:

S. James, Excavations at Dura-Europos, Final Report VII, The Arms ad Armour,

British Museum Press, London, 2003 (on Amazon).

This question has inspired me to create this page on archer's rings